[Japan Travel]: Tokuyama and Iwakuni
Hello again,
before I start posting photos from Thursday (which was the only day in ages when it was NOT raining!), I wanna talk about the "rain" and everything it causes here lately once again.
First of all, the water is still not back in my apartment. It has been FOUR DAYS now without water! FOUR DAYS!!!!
I found on a Japanese news site that they plan on giving everybody their water back at the latest on Tuesday next week. That means 2 more days without water.
The school where I work still has no water, but most of my coworkers and also the family of my boss seem to have water again. They live not too far away. I don't understand why they have their water back and I don't!
Furthermore they told me that I would probably be one of the people who get it back first because I really live close to a huge hospital, so they would first provide water to our area. Well, they didn't .....but good for the others ... They have water now *sigh*
Tonight I'm going to boil some mineral water and try to wash my dishes with it. I also can wash my body with mineral water and soap, but I REALLY need to wash my hair and I have no clue how to do that!!! (-____-)
I have a gyno appointment tomorrow morning! Of course I have to cancel the examination and just get my prescription this time! I can't wash myself properly anyway -__-; ...
And basically I could go to one of my coworkers to take a shower and all but first of all I don't like doing that and then it's raining cats and dogs again, so I would only get back dirty, soaked and .... yeah ... doesn't really make sense, huh? (-___-'')
And it's still raining and raining and raining.
Usually I'm not somebody whose mood is influenced by the weather at all, but after 2 months of consecutive rain I really feel annoyed, angry, moody, pissed off!
Yesterday I came home from work soaking! I even had to dry my paper money because it was soaking!!!!!!!!! It's so fucked up here lately!
The rain just won't stop!
It's really difficult to take photos of rain! On some of my photos it looked like it wasn't even raining although the rain was so strong that you couldn't see your own hands in fron of your face anymore ....
It's just a question of time until that river overflows as well ...
And the worst thing of it all is that roads are blocked! Fukuoka airport is drowning as well, many flights are cancelled or have a super late departure.
Which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't want to fly back home NEXT WEEK!!!!! If that goes on I might not be able to either get to Fukuoka (some Shinkansen don't run anymore and a taxi might not be able to pass all the blocked roads) or if I manage to get there then there's a high possibility that my flight is cancelled!!! I WANNA KILL SOMEBODY RIGHT NOW SERIOUSLY!!! FUCK OFF STUPID RAIN!!!! ;__________________; .....................
I also feel sorry for all the students that have summer vacation now and basically can do nothing at all!!! Several summer festivals and fireworks were cancelled as well due to the heavy rain ....
*sigh* |〃´△｀)
Anyway, .... I need some distraction from all that misery, so let's have a look at the nice and sunny (yay!) photos from Thursday (^-^)/
Sunrise in the morning before I left.
Tokuyama: I had to go there because I needed the "re-entry" permission thingie for my passport. If you don't have that and you leave the country then you'll lose your visa!
It's a city right at the ocean as you can see.
I couldn't find the office, so a middle-aged man on a bike helped me out. He was really nice :)
On my way back to the station I took photos of these pictures. I really liked them :)
And one more.
Because there's nothing much to see in Tokuyama and it was such a nice day, I decided to go to Iwakuni which is like 3 hours away by local train from where I live, but you have to pass Tokuyama anyway, so I almost was half way there then ;)
Iwakuni (岩国) is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
It's especially famous for "Kintaikyou" (錦帯橋) (the bridge you can see in the photo above). There's also a castle and some other interesting things :)
It's a popular sightseeing spot for people who're in Hiroshima, because it's close and thus worth a day trip :)
The bridge is famous because of its shape and because it's wooden.
Here you can see the castle in the background (on the mountain).
You're only allowed to pass the bridge by foot! You'll have to pay in order to cross it. There's a "ticket set" that you can buy which includes entrance for the castle, the rope way (which gives you a ride up to the castle) and for the bridge (both ways). It's cheap.
That's the view you get when you're actually on the bridge :)
After I crossed the bridge, I decided it was time for lunch before I move on.
Iwakuni is also famous for it's sushi which is just called "岩国寿司" (Iwakuni sushi). It's famous because of its shape, it's pressed into a square shape as you can see in the photo :)
Right when you've passed the bridge you'll be in front of the Kikko Park.
Again I took random photos. I just thought that tree was interesting (^^')>
Flowers (*-*)
There was also a rose park (*_*)
There are a few fountains in the park and because it was REALLY hot that day there were tons of families (well they have summer vacation now anyway) and many kids were "bathing" there XD
Hehe~ Iwakuni is also famous for its white snakes. They only live there and they are said to give you good luck, esp. for business stuff :)
The white snake is a symbol of Benten (= the Japanese goddess of wealth).
You also could buy various white snake lucky charms and some of them were really cute, but in the end I didn't (x_X)
Strolling further through the park.
Kois and turtles (*______^)
The hydrangeas in summer are really beautiful here (*_*)
Finally decided to visit the castle. View from up the rope-way station.
*lol*
In order to get to the castle you go through a thick forest and it was really nice because it was cool and not very humid in there :)
Of course there were some interesting plants and flowers as well.
Finally reached Iwakuni Castle.
More beautiful hydrangeas and I'm in love with those firefigther mice! (*_*)
It's really a small castle!!! Maybe the smallest I've ever been to?! But it's cute somehow :)
I also took some pictures inside the castle (but without flash, so excuse the quality, please!)
Caslte's highest floor = always awesome view!!! (*__*)
You can see "Kintaikyou" very well in this shot.
See? Not even one little cloud at all! When I compare that to all the other days in June and July .. *sigh* -__-
On my way back. I really like this photo.
Oh, really? I didn't know that! I wonder if we have a law like that in Germany as well, but I doubt it.
I've seen so many 10-years old smoking (and wanted to slap them for it) back home. I've never really paid attention to that in Japan so far. Maybe they really don't start smoking so early here?! Hmmm ...
Time check (funny/cute clock in front of the ropeway station).
Poor tree XD It seems to be popular with the mushrooms XD
Back to the park from before and stolling a little bit more.
Hello, Mr. Turtle! :D
That was in a small museum. Those are old telephone cards. I wish I had some of these (*__*)v
Old lottery tickets.
As it was really hot outside and my head started to hurt (a long time ago already), I decided to take a break and eat something cold.
イチゴかき氷 (shaved ice with strawberry syrup and condensed milk) => SUPER YUMMIE!!! (*_*)v
And then it was time to cross the bridge and go back.
Actually, when I took that photo there was an old man and his grandson standing beside me. I heard that old man saying to his grandson: "See? This bridge is soooo~ famous that even foreigners come!!!"
That made me very angry and I wanted to say something, but then didn't.
I know he didn't mean ANY harm! I know that. And some of you might wonder why I'm freaking out. It's just the daily discrimination. You just get fed up and sometimes angry.
Japanese people still think they can tell just by LOOKING at you if you're a foreigner or not without even asking you any questions or actually hear what language you speak!
They check you out, decide you don't look Japanese thus you CAN'T BE JAPANESE AT ALL NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER!!! *roar* *snort*
Of course, in my case it was true. I'm a foreigner and always will be, so that's okay, but that behavior is not!
I think I told you about one of my students before. Only his mother is Japanese. His father is French, but his father left them. He doesn't look very Japanese (the boy) and thus gets stared at every day. He's Japanese, though! He was born here, he only can speak Japanese, he goes to a Japanese school, he's being socialised here in Japan, he probably only knows Japanese culture etc.
Nevertheless, if that old man would have seen that boy instead of me he would still have said the same sentence. In that case it wouldn't have been true, though! That's why I'm angry.
I know it's still rare, but many Japanese people are just too blind and thus racists! Most of them don't do it on purpose, they don't even know, but this naive behavior is sometimes what makes me angry *nods*
There was a group of school kids (elementary?! 5-6th graders, I guess) with some teachers - maybe a summer camp trip thinge: they saw me and some of them shouted "Hello!!!" and stuff at me. I said こんにちは instead and moved on. I mean we're in Japan, so why the hell are you greeting people in English? When you're in your own country and you see somebody that looks like it MIGHT be somebody from China do you shout "nihao" then??!!! WTF?!
I know .. they're just kids and they just wanted to "talk" or say something to a "foreigner" so that they can tell their friends later, but thing is they would have ignored me if I were Japanese. They didn't ignore me because I'm a foreigner. That sometimes is annoying as well.
A few days in class. A Japanese teacher in our school asks the Jr. high school students in which countries they think people speak English. Among the answers were various countries such as Italy, France etc. ... WTF?!
That's another thing. They think all Westeners CAN ACTUALLY SPEAK ENGLISH! XD *lol*
It's sad, but true: their knowledge about anything beyond Asia is really limited to non-existent *sigh* .....
ANYWAY ...after crossing the bridge I checked out some souvenir shops but couldn't find anything for the people back home. I still need to find things for a few people ;o; ....
Not much time left and with that rain outside I can't really go anywhere anyway *sigh*
Dinner: 他人丼 (funny name XD) -> bowl of rice with (in my case) beef, onions and egg => yummie ヾ(@⌒￢⌒@)ノ
Camera used:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
After a very long and super cold (I hate Japanese aircons in trains - one of these days they're gonna kill me or I'm gonna kill them) I finally arrived at home.
I was all sweaty and tired and was looking forward to taking a shower the whole time. That's when I realized that no water was coming out of the shower and that I had no water at all in my apartment.
- TeH END - ..........((((￢_￢)
<~ てるてる坊主
before I start posting photos from Thursday (which was the only day in ages when it was NOT raining!), I wanna talk about the "rain" and everything it causes here lately once again.
First of all, the water is still not back in my apartment. It has been FOUR DAYS now without water! FOUR DAYS!!!!
I found on a Japanese news site that they plan on giving everybody their water back at the latest on Tuesday next week. That means 2 more days without water.
The school where I work still has no water, but most of my coworkers and also the family of my boss seem to have water again. They live not too far away. I don't understand why they have their water back and I don't!
Furthermore they told me that I would probably be one of the people who get it back first because I really live close to a huge hospital, so they would first provide water to our area. Well, they didn't .....but good for the others ... They have water now *sigh*
Tonight I'm going to boil some mineral water and try to wash my dishes with it. I also can wash my body with mineral water and soap, but I REALLY need to wash my hair and I have no clue how to do that!!! (-____-)
I have a gyno appointment tomorrow morning! Of course I have to cancel the examination and just get my prescription this time! I can't wash myself properly anyway -__-; ...
And basically I could go to one of my coworkers to take a shower and all but first of all I don't like doing that and then it's raining cats and dogs again, so I would only get back dirty, soaked and .... yeah ... doesn't really make sense, huh? (-___-'')
And it's still raining and raining and raining.
Usually I'm not somebody whose mood is influenced by the weather at all, but after 2 months of consecutive rain I really feel annoyed, angry, moody, pissed off!
Yesterday I came home from work soaking! I even had to dry my paper money because it was soaking!!!!!!!!! It's so fucked up here lately!
The rain just won't stop!
It's really difficult to take photos of rain! On some of my photos it looked like it wasn't even raining although the rain was so strong that you couldn't see your own hands in fron of your face anymore ....
It's just a question of time until that river overflows as well ...
And the worst thing of it all is that roads are blocked! Fukuoka airport is drowning as well, many flights are cancelled or have a super late departure.
Which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't want to fly back home NEXT WEEK!!!!! If that goes on I might not be able to either get to Fukuoka (some Shinkansen don't run anymore and a taxi might not be able to pass all the blocked roads) or if I manage to get there then there's a high possibility that my flight is cancelled!!! I WANNA KILL SOMEBODY RIGHT NOW SERIOUSLY!!! FUCK OFF STUPID RAIN!!!! ;__________________; .....................
I also feel sorry for all the students that have summer vacation now and basically can do nothing at all!!! Several summer festivals and fireworks were cancelled as well due to the heavy rain ....
*sigh* |〃´△｀)
Anyway, .... I need some distraction from all that misery, so let's have a look at the nice and sunny (yay!) photos from Thursday (^-^)/
Sunrise in the morning before I left.
Tokuyama: I had to go there because I needed the "re-entry" permission thingie for my passport. If you don't have that and you leave the country then you'll lose your visa!
It's a city right at the ocean as you can see.
I couldn't find the office, so a middle-aged man on a bike helped me out. He was really nice :)
On my way back to the station I took photos of these pictures. I really liked them :)
And one more.
Because there's nothing much to see in Tokuyama and it was such a nice day, I decided to go to Iwakuni which is like 3 hours away by local train from where I live, but you have to pass Tokuyama anyway, so I almost was half way there then ;)
Iwakuni (岩国) is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture.
It's especially famous for "Kintaikyou" (錦帯橋) (the bridge you can see in the photo above). There's also a castle and some other interesting things :)
It's a popular sightseeing spot for people who're in Hiroshima, because it's close and thus worth a day trip :)
The bridge is famous because of its shape and because it's wooden.
Here you can see the castle in the background (on the mountain).
You're only allowed to pass the bridge by foot! You'll have to pay in order to cross it. There's a "ticket set" that you can buy which includes entrance for the castle, the rope way (which gives you a ride up to the castle) and for the bridge (both ways). It's cheap.
That's the view you get when you're actually on the bridge :)
After I crossed the bridge, I decided it was time for lunch before I move on.
Iwakuni is also famous for it's sushi which is just called "岩国寿司" (Iwakuni sushi). It's famous because of its shape, it's pressed into a square shape as you can see in the photo :)
Right when you've passed the bridge you'll be in front of the Kikko Park.
Again I took random photos. I just thought that tree was interesting (^^')>
Flowers (*-*)
There was also a rose park (*_*)
There are a few fountains in the park and because it was REALLY hot that day there were tons of families (well they have summer vacation now anyway) and many kids were "bathing" there XD
Hehe~ Iwakuni is also famous for its white snakes. They only live there and they are said to give you good luck, esp. for business stuff :)
The white snake is a symbol of Benten (= the Japanese goddess of wealth).
You also could buy various white snake lucky charms and some of them were really cute, but in the end I didn't (x_X)
Strolling further through the park.
Kois and turtles (*______^)
The hydrangeas in summer are really beautiful here (*_*)
Finally decided to visit the castle. View from up the rope-way station.
*lol*
In order to get to the castle you go through a thick forest and it was really nice because it was cool and not very humid in there :)
Of course there were some interesting plants and flowers as well.
Finally reached Iwakuni Castle.
More beautiful hydrangeas and I'm in love with those firefigther mice! (*_*)
It's really a small castle!!! Maybe the smallest I've ever been to?! But it's cute somehow :)
I also took some pictures inside the castle (but without flash, so excuse the quality, please!)
Caslte's highest floor = always awesome view!!! (*__*)
You can see "Kintaikyou" very well in this shot.
See? Not even one little cloud at all! When I compare that to all the other days in June and July .. *sigh* -__-
On my way back. I really like this photo.
Oh, really? I didn't know that! I wonder if we have a law like that in Germany as well, but I doubt it.
I've seen so many 10-years old smoking (and wanted to slap them for it) back home. I've never really paid attention to that in Japan so far. Maybe they really don't start smoking so early here?! Hmmm ...
Time check (funny/cute clock in front of the ropeway station).
Poor tree XD It seems to be popular with the mushrooms XD
Back to the park from before and stolling a little bit more.
Hello, Mr. Turtle! :D
That was in a small museum. Those are old telephone cards. I wish I had some of these (*__*)v
Old lottery tickets.
As it was really hot outside and my head started to hurt (a long time ago already), I decided to take a break and eat something cold.
イチゴかき氷 (shaved ice with strawberry syrup and condensed milk) => SUPER YUMMIE!!! (*_*)v
And then it was time to cross the bridge and go back.
Actually, when I took that photo there was an old man and his grandson standing beside me. I heard that old man saying to his grandson: "See? This bridge is soooo~ famous that even foreigners come!!!"
That made me very angry and I wanted to say something, but then didn't.
I know he didn't mean ANY harm! I know that. And some of you might wonder why I'm freaking out. It's just the daily discrimination. You just get fed up and sometimes angry.
Japanese people still think they can tell just by LOOKING at you if you're a foreigner or not without even asking you any questions or actually hear what language you speak!
They check you out, decide you don't look Japanese thus you CAN'T BE JAPANESE AT ALL NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER!!! *roar* *snort*
Of course, in my case it was true. I'm a foreigner and always will be, so that's okay, but that behavior is not!
I think I told you about one of my students before. Only his mother is Japanese. His father is French, but his father left them. He doesn't look very Japanese (the boy) and thus gets stared at every day. He's Japanese, though! He was born here, he only can speak Japanese, he goes to a Japanese school, he's being socialised here in Japan, he probably only knows Japanese culture etc.
Nevertheless, if that old man would have seen that boy instead of me he would still have said the same sentence. In that case it wouldn't have been true, though! That's why I'm angry.
I know it's still rare, but many Japanese people are just too blind and thus racists! Most of them don't do it on purpose, they don't even know, but this naive behavior is sometimes what makes me angry *nods*
There was a group of school kids (elementary?! 5-6th graders, I guess) with some teachers - maybe a summer camp trip thinge: they saw me and some of them shouted "Hello!!!" and stuff at me. I said こんにちは instead and moved on. I mean we're in Japan, so why the hell are you greeting people in English? When you're in your own country and you see somebody that looks like it MIGHT be somebody from China do you shout "nihao" then??!!! WTF?!
I know .. they're just kids and they just wanted to "talk" or say something to a "foreigner" so that they can tell their friends later, but thing is they would have ignored me if I were Japanese. They didn't ignore me because I'm a foreigner. That sometimes is annoying as well.
A few days in class. A Japanese teacher in our school asks the Jr. high school students in which countries they think people speak English. Among the answers were various countries such as Italy, France etc. ... WTF?!
That's another thing. They think all Westeners CAN ACTUALLY SPEAK ENGLISH! XD *lol*
It's sad, but true: their knowledge about anything beyond Asia is really limited to non-existent *sigh* .....
ANYWAY ...after crossing the bridge I checked out some souvenir shops but couldn't find anything for the people back home. I still need to find things for a few people ;o; ....
Not much time left and with that rain outside I can't really go anywhere anyway *sigh*
Dinner: 他人丼 (funny name XD) -> bowl of rice with (in my case) beef, onions and egg => yummie ヾ(@⌒￢⌒@)ノ
Camera used:
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5
After a very long and super cold (I hate Japanese aircons in trains - one of these days they're gonna kill me or I'm gonna kill them) I finally arrived at home.
I was all sweaty and tired and was looking forward to taking a shower the whole time. That's when I realized that no water was coming out of the shower and that I had no water at all in my apartment.
- TeH END - ..........((((￢_￢)
<~ てるてる坊主